Feda/Century Hummingbird comparable heli.

[Curtis Burns]

I have a Feda fixed pitch which is like a Century Hummingbird. It's a lot of fun but I don't like the tail having it's own motor. Who makes a comparable (size, price, etc.) heli that has a shaft or belt drive to the tail rotor instead of a separate motor.

Curt

[Tabbytabb]

Curt, There are really only 2 micro helis with driven tails at the moment. The zoom and the Hornet 2. They are both nice helis but will sustain far more damage then your feda in a crash.

If you dont mind me asking what is it that you dont like about the tail motor setup?? What tail motor are you using??

I have a piccolo pro with a edp50xc direct drive tail motor and the tail is locked down. Might be worth a try before you go to a driven tail solution.

Hope that helps
Tabb

[Curtis Burns]

Tabb:

I'm using the stock motors and they don't seem to last very long or come close to holding the tail in place. I spend the whole time flying in circles because the tail won't hold even with full right rudder.


Where do you get a edp50xc? I've never heard of it.

Curt

[Tabbytabb]

I ordered my last set from www.aeromicro.com or www.allerc.com

They are a larger motor and run a small prop direct drive much faster then the stock configuration. It is strong enough to hold for somewild 3d so it will definately hold for a FP machine.

how is your machine setup?? Does it have a mixer board to control the tail to main motor mixing ratio?? I know on some of them you can up the gain to the tail with an adjustment on the mixer board.

Hope you get it sorted out :)

Tabb

[Curtis Burns]

Tabb:

It did have the Feda board which was an ESC for both motors and also a mixer to allow you to use a basic 4 CH radio. It has no adjustments only a LED. When I installed my brushless, I removed it and used a T6XAs set to heli with the mixing set in the radio, and a GWS 100 ESC with a new stock motor on the tail. I turned all settings as high as I could get them in the radio to get the tail to hold, with no avail. That's when I posted this.

Today I got the bright idea of using a motor and ring gear off of an old GWS Pico stick for the tail. This fixed it!!!! Much, much better. (Now if the wind would die down)

I would assume this is the same motor used in direct drive systems, however it seems to work great like this.

Thanks for the help Tabb.

Curt

[Tabbytabb]

I belive it is the same motor, glad you got it working!

I had very bad luck with those stock tail motors as well.

Tabb

[OMCtechUSN]

Curtis what type of gyro do you have on your Feda? I use a CSM heading hold for my hummingbird and it keeps the tail locked in quite well. If you haven't yet gotten one it may be a good upgrade for your Feda.

[Curtis Burns]

OMCtechUSN:

I use the $35.00 GWS pezo gyro it came with.

Do you have a link for the CSM?

Now what I'm running into is the GWS 100 ESC is cutting off in mid flight. I think the Phoenix 10 brushless ESC is pulling the battery voltage down past the GWS ESC shutoff threshold because I'm using 7 cell 750 Mah Nimh batteries that aren't in very good condition. I ordered two LiPo 3 cell 700 Mah Batteries today. I hope there the right size and thid fixes the problem.

Anyone have any suggestions on LiPo size and cell count for my Feda? If I need to buy more it's not a big deal because these batteries I ordered today will work for my park fliers also.

I'm going to buy the edp50xc Tabb suggested also. It's only about ten bucks.

I hate spending so much money on this heli but I've already bought it, winter is right around the corner and unlike my 50v2, I can fly it inside, it has to be as good of a learning tool as my G2 simulator and I know this heli is tough. In fact I flew it into a brick wall today (when the tail quit) and it didn't do anything but scuff it up a little.

Curt

[Tabbytabb]

Curtis, Thunder power makes great batteries, so does Tanic and Irate.

I would say if you are looking for a good duration the thunder power 1320 should give you a nice long flights. Pretty much any of the newer 1200 plus cells should work great.

I use to fly mine with 2 cell 1200 etecs and it seemed like it flew forever on them :)

Also that CSM HLG 200 is known to have some problems with 3 cells, if you are in the market for a better gyro the 240 or 401 are your best bet. I think when you get the direct drive tail you should be fine with the gws pg-03, it works very well for what it is.

I know the feeling of not wanting to dump a ton of money into these little toys :)

Hope that helps
Tabb

[WillJames]

I'm fighting with a GWS gyro right now! One day it flys great, no tail wag the next the tail goes crazy. Got a 240 on the way from Mac that will be here Friday. :)

[OMCtechUSN]

Curtis here's a link for the CSM Gyro: http://www.helihobby.com/html/gyros.html
The site sells a version with a case and an uncased version which I run. It ran about $93 shipped. I know a guy who has a piccolo pro and runs that same gyro and a 3 cell lipoly with no problems. I still use the birdseed pack so I dont know if a 3s lipoly (I have two 1500 3s kokams I plan on using) would cause problems with my hummingbird. I at first ran the 401 I use in my hawk in my hummingbird until I got the CSM and it worked great after I got it set up. I mostly got the CSM because it takes up less room, but so far it works just about as well as the 401.